Case Studies

Changeable Artwork Lifts Kid’s Spirits in the Healthcare Space

Fresh Artists Headquarters, Philadelphia – Fresh Artists is growing the next generation of philanthropists and empowering vulnerable children’s lives through their art. Through their unique model of social entrepreneurship, disadvantaged children can bring much needed resources to their art classrooms by donating the use of their art to help other children.

Fresh Artists has designed a groundbreaking new model of philanthropy. Selected children’s works of art are scanned at extremely high resolution, printed in large format and given as gifts to companies who donate to Fresh Artists, an award-winning national nonprofit located in Philadelphia. Funds raised deliver art supplies and art programs to severely underfunded schools across the country. The scaled-up children’s masterpieces transform corporate workspaces with stunning, affordable and meaningful art while affirming the promise and potential of children in our public schools.

Fresh Artists had engaged thousands of children when Visual Magnetics’ CEO Joe Deetz met Barbara Chandler Allen, founder and passionate leader of Fresh Artists at the 2013 SGIA Expo. Joe immediately asked Barbara, “How can we find a new application for our product that can directly impact children-in-need?”

Adopting Fresh Artists as corporate social responsibility partner, Visual Magnetics donated materials for a large wall at Fresh Artists’ studio in Philadelphia, trained co-founder and Creative Director, Roger Allen, on printing and installation, and set the Fresh Artist team to work developing innovative applications for the materials.

A couple months later, Barbara and her son Roger were working with a children’s long-term care facility in Philadelphia when they had a brainstorm. Visual Magnetics would enable them to create an efficient program of changing out artwork in children’s hospital rooms on a regular basis.

“Roger and I looked at each other and said, ‘The art could be switched out easily by the nursing staff. This material is the perfect solution to freshen up children’s rooms and empower children and families who find themselves in a somewhat powerless and challenging situation,’” says Barbara. Their novel concept was applauded by numerous healthcare professionals. Regularly changing the artworks would mean that the young patients and their parents can select their own art, giving them something fun to look forward to and making the in-patient environments more uplifting and refreshing. Fresh Artists is also considering offering the “art library” system to Child Advocacy Centers, which serve children who have suffered severe trauma.

“We have spent time learning about these facilities and understanding the challenges and needs of not only the patients and families, but also the staff. The nurses and attendants see the children’s art as an incredible gift profoundly impacting the culture and climate of the health care facility. The staff experiences immediate gratification when they see how new art brightens the moods of the children in their care,” says Barbara.

With the help of a materials donation from Visual Magnetics, Fresh Artists is developing a prototype system that can be installed in children’s long-term care facilities. Roger Allen has created a unique platform mount for frames installed with the Visual Magnetics system so that either landscape or portrait-oriented images can be easily installed inside patient rooms and common spaces. The “art library” system Fresh Artists is developing will consist of a catalog and small-footprint storage system to house the collection of printed works in numbered tubes. Patients and their families will be able to select artworks using the catalog, which staff can easily roll-on. The Fresh Artist team tested Visual Magnetics’ for durability and the materials showed no effect after being scrubbed with hospital grade disinfectants. “At every turn we found that Visual Magnetics had a solution engineered into their existing system to help us develop this idea,” says Barbara. “Partnering with Visual Magnetics to bring excitement, change and empowerment to these vulnerable children means the world to us.” View a pdf of this case study here.

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